The Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Asian NIEs

Abstract

For a long time and especially since World War II, most economists have strongly argued that world production and employment were just condemned to go big scale and that small and medium-sized business was just a kind of necessary but transitory stage in industrial development. Large companies have attracted most attention from social scientists and policy decision-makers till recent years, with a widely and often unquestioned belief” that business concentration and integration would be the long-term natural outcome of universal economic development: in this perspective small and even medium-sized business would gradually stagnate, decline or disappear because of poor efficiency and management, backward technologies, lack of capital and marketing ability. Looking back at the golden years of rapid economic growth in the OECD countries (at least up to the mid-70s) or reading today’s newspaper headlines dealing with daily mergers of big companies throughout the world may lead to similar conclusions, especially among those who might advocate or fear the emergence of major “fortress” economic zones under American, Japanese or EEC leadership.